Egypt
Egypt (/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (listen) EE-jipt; Arabic: مِصر‎ Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: مَصر‎ Maṣr, Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Khēmi), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridgeformed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, and across the Mediterranean lie Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt.Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government.12 Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of scientific and popular interest. Egypt's long and rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, which has endured, and often assimilated, various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman Turkish, and Nubian. Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, but was largely Islamised in the seventh century and remains a predominantly Muslim country, albeit with a significant Christian minority. Republic of Egypt The history of the Arab Republic of Egypt traverses the time of current Egyptian history from the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 to the present day, which saw the toppling of the government of Egypt and Sudan, the foundation of a presidential republic, and a time of significant monetary, and political change in Egypt, and all through the Arab world. The cancelation of a government and nobility saw generally as thoughtful to Western interests, especially since the removing of Khedive Isma'il Pasha, more than seven decades sooner, reinforced the really Egyptian character of the republic according to its supporters. From that point as of not long ago Egypt has dependably been a free nation. Egyptian revolution of 1952 While the Free Officers planned to overthrow the monarchy on 2–3 August, they decided to make their move earlier after their official leader, Muhammad Naguib, gained knowledge, leaked from the Egyptian cabinet on 19 July, that King Farouk acquired a list of the dissenting officers and was set to arrest them. The officers thus decided to launch a preemptive strike and after finalizing their plans in meeting at the home of Khaled Mohieddin, they began their coup on the night of 22 July. Mohieddin stayed in his home and Anwar Sadat went to the cinema.In the mean time, the administrator of the Free Officers, Gamal Abdel Nasser, reached the Muslim Brotherhood and the socialist Democratic Movement for National Liberation to guarantee their help. On the morning of 23 July, he and Abdel Hakim Amer left Mohieddin's home in non military personnel garments and drove around Cairo in Nasser's car to gather men to capture key royalist administrators before they achieved their garisson huts and oversee their troopers. As they moved toward the el-Qoba Bridge, a gunnery unit driven by Youssef Seddik met with them before he drove his force to take control the Military General Headquarters to capture the royalist armed force head of staff, Hussein Sirri Amer and the various authorities who were available in the structure. At 6:00 am the Free Officers aviation based armed forces units started revolving around Cairo's skies. At 7:30 a.m., a telecom station issued the first dispatch of the rebellion for the sake of Gen. Naguib to the Egyptian individuals. It endeavored to legitimize the upset, which was otherwise called the "Blessed Movement". The individual perusing the message was Free Officer and future leader of Egypt Anwar Sadat.With his British encouraging group of people presently neutralized, King Farouk looked for the mediation of the United States, which was lethargic. By the 25th, the military had involved Alexandria, where the ruler was in living arrangement at the Montaza Palace. Unnerved, Farouk surrendered Montaza and fled to Ras Al-Teen Palace on the waterfront. Naguib requested the chief of Farouk's yacht, al-Mahrusa, not to cruise without requests from the army.Debate broke out among the Free Officers concerning the destiny of the removed lord. While a few (counting Gen. Naguib and Nasser) felt that the best strategy was to send him into outcast, others contended that he ought to be put on preliminary or executed. At long last, the request sought Farouk to surrender for his child, Crown Prince Ahmed Fuad - who was agreed to the position of authority as King Fuad II - and a Regency Council was delegated. The previous lord's flight into outcast went ahead Saturday, July 26, 1952 and at 6 o'clock that night he set sail for Italy with assurance from the Egyptian armed force. On July 28, 1953, Muhammad Naguib turned into the main President of Egypt, which denoted the start of present day Egyptian administration.The Revolution Command Council (RCC), made up of the preceding nine-member command committee of the Free Officers in addition to five extramembers, chaired by Naguib, was formed. Ali Maher used to be asked to structure a civilian government. When the Free Officers started out separating elements sympathizing with the Soviet Union, communist cadres led peopleriots in Kafr Dawar on August 12, 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. Ali Maher who nevertheless sympathized with the British resigned on 7 September following differences with the officers, basically over proposed land reform. Naguib grew to become prime minister, with Nasser as deputy primeminister. On 9 September, the Agrarian Reform Law was passed, which without delay seized any European-owned, mainly British owned property in Egypt.This was accompanied via signaling a major land redistribution programme amongst peasant farmers which gained most of the seized land. In a bid to cease concentration of land ownership, the regime positioned a ceiling of 200 feddans on land ownership. On 9 December, the RCC except due method decreed that the 1923 Constitution of Egypt used to be abrogated "in the title of the people."On 16 January 1953 the officers of the RCC dissolved and banned all political parties, declaring a three-year transitional length in the course of which the RCC would rule. A provisional Constitutional Charter, written by the close circle of usurpers, was oncewritten with the intention of giving a veneer of legitimacy to the RCC. This new Constitution was proclaimed on 10 February, and the Liberation Rally — the first of three political corporations linked to the July regime — was once launched soon afterwards with the aim of mobilising popular support. The Rally was once headed through Nasser and blanketed other Free Officers as secretaries-general. On 18 June, the RCC declared Egypt a republic abolishing the monarchy (the child son of Farouk had been reigning as King Fuad II) and appointing General Naguib, aged 52, as first president and high minister. Gamal Abdel Nasser, 35, was appointed deputy premier and minister of the interior. A "Revolutionary Tribunal" consisting of RCC contributors Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Sadat and Hassan Ibrahim, was set up to attempt politicians of the ancien régime. Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser Ecenomic Reform Land Reform The original revolutionaries wanted an end to British occupation but did not have a unified ideology or plan for Egypt.One issue that was agreed on and acted quickly on was land reform. Less than six percent of Egypt's population owned more than 65% of the land in Egypt, while at the top and less than 0.5% of Egyptians owned more than one-third of all fertile land.the process of land reform began on September 11, 1952, when (among many provisions) a law prohibited ownership of more than 200 feddans of land (840000 sq meters); limited the rental rate for land; established cooperatives for farmers; minimum wages, etc.During the presidency of Nasser, cultivated land in Egypt increased by almost a third (an achievement that had reportedly eluded Egyptians for more than a millennium). Opposition to Baghdad Pact A major reason why conservative Arab regimes felt threatened by Nasser during his first years in power was because his popularity had been demonstrated – even before the Suez crisis – when he became a leading critic of the 1955 Baghdad Pact. The Baghdad Pact was initially an alliance between Iraq and Turkey, which Britain supported with the goal of strengthening its power within the Middle East. Nasser considered the Baghdad Pact to be part of a British effort to split the Arab countries into differing groups, and to divide the region by escalating tension between them. The British later attempted to bring Jordan into the Baghdad Pact in late 1955 after Nasser agreed to purchase arms from Czechoslovokia in the Soviet bloc. The British were determined to bring Jordan into the Baghdad Pact and to apply pressure to try and force Jordan to join. Nasser had opposed the Baghdad Pact, and his successful effort to prevent Jordan from joining the pact is an example of his pragmatic diplomatic strategy. Nasser’s pragmatism towards Jordan meant that he aimed to force the Jordan regime to decline to join the pact, but he did not himself attempt to overthrow the regime. This stance was rewarded with Jordanian support for Egypt during the Suez Crisis the following year in 1956.The dispute over Jordanian membership in the Baghdad pact lasted from November to December 1955. Nasser’s goal was based on Egyptian national interests – he wanted to prevent Jordanian membership in the Baghdad Pact, which was more important to him than the fate of the Jordanian regime. He was thus prepared to offer the Jordanian regime a way out in which it could survive if it did not join the pact. Nasser’s strategy during the debate over the Baghdad Pact was to apply rhetorical pressure using Egyptian propaganda to launch broadcasts attacking the British, and also warning the Jordanian regime that it could be overthrown if it agreed to join the pact.The Egyptian propaganda led to riots occurring in Jordan in December 1955 during a visit of British Field Marshal Templer, who was serving as the British Defense Chief of Staff.The nature of the message that Egyptian propaganda conveyed during the crisis over Jordanian accession to the Baghdad pact is very significant. Its primary focus was on attacking the British rather than the Jordanian regime itself, and it did not itself call for the overthrow of King Hussein. In other words, this propaganda was intended to pressure the regime, and likely to implicitly convince King Hussein that his prospects for remaining in power would be greater if he declined to join the Baghdad Pact, and Jordan decided in December that it would not join the agreement.King Hussein remained in power, and sided with Egypt in future crises such as in the 1956 Suez Crisis or in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Egypt thus derived a direct reward from their pragmatic approach towards King Hussein’s regime, and the example of the dispute over the Baghdad Pact may have convinced King Hussein that he needed to align with Egypt in future crisis situations. The power of Arab Nationalism also led King Hussein to dismiss the British General John Bagot Glubb as commander of the Arab Legion in 1956.The dismissal of Glubb took place while the British Foreign Secretary was in Egypt, and the British believed that represented a direct challenge by Nasser to their authority in the region The Tripartite Aggression Egypt had been seeking loans from the World Bank since late 1955 to finance the construction of the Aswan High Dam. A tentative agreement with the World Bank, the US and Britain indicated that US$70 million would be provided for the project. However, Nasser had recently (September 27, 1955) negotiated an agreement with the Soviet Union which provided technical and military aid to the regime, thereby angering the United States which had up until the point been supportive of Nasser and his anti-British and anti-French colonialism. Consequently, after pressure from the British government concerning the threat posed by Nasser, on 20 July 1956, the US and Britain withdrew their offers of funding, and the World Bank went back on the agreement. On 26 July, Nasser gave a historic speech announcing the nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company, under his "Egyptionization" policy, and whose revenues would be used to finance the construction of the High Dam, which was completed in January 1968. The nationalisation escalated tension with Britain and France, which froze Egyptian assets and put their armies on alert.On 1 August, the USSR offered to fund the High Dam project. Relations with Britain and France which had deteriorated to a frosty cold war level by the summer, were framed anew when the United States withdrew much of its support in demonstration against Nasser's growing friendship with the Soviet Union. Having at last convinced the United States of its error in supporting the Free Officers Movement and the special threat posed by Nasser, the British and French felt free to intrigue for his overthrow. These moved culminated in the Tripartite Anglo-French-Israeli aggression on Egypt in October.In a final replay of old European power politics, the British and French negotiated a plan with Israel which would result in the return of the Suez to the British and French, the overthrow of the Nasser regime, and restoration of European, Christian and Jewish property. Although the later had suffered under the new regime, unlike the Europeans, most Jewish property survived the Egyptianization. Consequently, Israel, which had previously been used as an interlocuteur for both Soviet and American support for the RCC still had substantial elements operating in Egypt. Now the British and French decided to use this to their advantage once Israel saw the large threat Nasser posed to their continued existence. Under their plan, Israeli elements in Egypt with launch false flag operations which would be used as a pretext for Israeli launching a surprise attack on Egypt across the Sinai and toward the Suez. Using the terms of the Canal treaty which allowed the British and French to use military force in protection of the canal, an Anglo-French force would invade the canal area and subsequently invade Cairo.Israeli troops invaded Gaza and advanced toward the Sinai on 29 October. Accordingly, under the terms of the Canal Treaty, the British and French troops attacked the Canal Zone on 31 October using a combined force of air strikes, naval bombardment, and parachute drops. Large amphibious and infantry units were steaming from Cyprus and Algeria toward the canal for the final occupation and push into Cairo. Whilst the operation had all the elements necessary for surprise and legerdomain, it lacked quickness of speed given the relative strategic weakness which the British and French found themselves in the post-war period.For although the British and French still had substantial force projection capabilities and were the overwhelming military power in the region, both countries were heavily dependent on American support for their economies through the purchase of British and French debt, American direct investment, and most importantly, through the support American oil companies provided for European consumption. Consequently, by the time when the Anglo-French armada began its reinforcement of British and French positions on the Canal, the American government had already come under massive pressure from the United Nations, the Soviet Union, and most importantly from American oil companies which saw the British and French as impediments to their commercial expansion in the Middle East.When the American anger at the British and French intervention was felt at Whitehall, the British government fractured between those who saw the futility of maintaining the British Empire, those who saw the potential threat the Americans posed to the overall British economy should they end financial support of the British economy, and those British interests which still saw a need, a necessity and a reason for maintaining the British Empire. Thus, when the Eisenhower Administration initiated an oil embargo on the British and French, there was immediate panic in the British government. The French however were proving more resolute and flouted American demands stating matter of factly that America had no interest in the Middle East and were duplicitous in their support of Arab nationalism and anti-colonialism.However, with the embargo, the British pound which as a reserve currency was used in the purchase of oil had its liquidity threatened. While the British government debated this turn of events, the military campaign dithered and proved lackluster in its execution, thereby buying crucial time for the Nasser regime to rally support from American liberals, the Soviet Union, and others in the United Nations. Finally, when in a bid of solidarity with the Nasser regime, the US government said it would no longer price support the British pound through the purchasing of British debt, the appeasers within the British government gained the upper hand and forced a surrender to American demands. Consequently, British operations were halted on 7 November. When negotiations between the British and Americans made clear that the US was in opposition to the continuation of the British and French Empires, the British government's position on its control of the Suez Canal collapsed. Henceforth it was not military operations but the liquidation of what remained of British and French assets and prestige which allowed the Anglo-French armies to remain until finally, on 22 December they were removed. As a result, all British and French banks and companies, 15,000 establishments in all, were nationalized, a process that was later extended to all foreign establishments and also to Egyptian firms. But more importantly, the event marked the abandonment of by the United States to an overt Western Civilizational identity especially of supremacy, as well as America's opposition to a European global commercial presence which it viewed as a competitor to its own global vision. As a result, with the primary leader of the West opposed to the very raison d'être of European colonialism, the Suez Crisis, initiated by the Free Officers Movement and the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 marked the end of European Civilization Supremacy. Union with Syria On 22 February 1958, Egypt united with Syria, creating the United Arab Republic (UAR). The 1956 Constitution was abrogated following the union and a provisional one decreed. The Egyptian National Assembly was dissolved. On 2 April, Nasser issued a decree establishing the flag of the Republic as three horizontal bars of red, white and black with two stars. There was a crackdown on communists on 31 December for their allegedly lukewarm response to the Union with Syria.Following Syrian secession in 1962, a Preparatory Committee of the National Congress of Popular Forces was convened in Cairo to prepare for a National Congress to lay down a Charter for National Action. The 1,750-member Congress of representatives from peasant, laborer, professional and occupational associations meets in May to debate the Draft National Charter presented by Nasser. On 30 June, the Congress approves the Charter, which sets up a new political organization, the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) to replace the National Union. 50 per cent of the seats in the ASU are to be filled by farmers and workers. Elected ASU units are set up in factories, firms, agricultural cooperatives, ministries and professional syndicates. Six-Day War The Six-Day War (Hebrew: מִלְחֶמֶת שֵׁשֶׁת הַיָּמִים, Milhemet Sheshet Ha Yamim; Arabic: النكسة, an-Naksah, "The Setback" or حرب 1967, Ḥarb 1967, "War of 1967"), also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between 5 and 10 June 1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria.Relations between Israel and its neighbours were not fully normalised after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In 1956 Israel invaded the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, with one of its objectives being the reopening of the Straits of Tiran that Egypt had blocked to Israeli shipping since 1950. Israel was eventually forced to withdraw, but was guaranteed that the Straits of Tiran would remain open. A United Nations Emergency Force was deployed along the border, but there was no demilitarisation agreement.In the months prior to June 1967, tensions became dangerously heightened. Israel reiterated its post-1956 position that the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping would be a cause for war (a casus belli). In May Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that the straits would be closed to Israeli vessels and then mobilised its Egyptian forces along its border with Israel. On 5 June, Israel launched what it claimed were a series of preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields. The question of which side caused the war is one of a number of controversies relating to the conflict.The Egyptians were caught by surprise, and nearly the entire Egyptian air force was destroyed with few Israeli losses, giving the Israelis air supremacy. Simultaneously, the Israelis launched a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip and the Sinai, which again caught the Egyptians by surprise. After some initial resistance, Nasser ordered the evacuation of the Sinai. Israeli forces rushed westward in pursuit of the Egyptians, inflicted heavy losses, and conquered the Sinai.Jordan had entered into a defense pact with Egypt a week before the war began; the agreement envisaged that in the event of war Jordan would not take an offensive role but would attempt to tie down Israeli forces to prevent them making territorial gains.About an hour after the Israeli air attack, the Egyptian commander of the Jordanian army was ordered by Cairo to begin attacks on Israel; in the initially confused situation, the Jordanians were told that Egypt had repelled the Israeli air strikes. Israel subsequently captured and occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from the Jordanians and the Golan Heights from Syria.Egypt and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire on 8 June, and Syria agreed on 9 June; a ceasefire was signed with Israel on 11 June. In the aftermath of the war, Israel had crippled the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian militaries, having killed over 20,000 troops while only losing fewer than 1,000 of its own. The Israeli success was the result of a well-prepared and enacted strategy, the poor leadership of the Arab states, and their poor military leadership and strategy. Israel seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel's international standing greatly improved in the following years. Its victory humiliated Egypt, Jordan and Syria, leading Nasser to resign in shame; he was later reinstated after protests in Egypt against his resignation. The speed and ease of Israel's victory would later lead to a dangerous overconfidence within the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), contributing to initial Arab successes in the subsequent 1973 Yom Kippur War, although ultimately Israeli forces were successful and defeated the Arab militaries. The displacement of civilian populations resulting from the war would have long-term consequences, as 300,000 Palestinians fled the West Bank and about 100,000 Syrians left the Golan Heights. Across the Arab world, Jewish minority communities fled or were expelled, with refugees going mainly to Israel or Europe. Education Instructive open doors were "drastically extended" after the upheaval. The Free Officers vowed to give free instruction to all residents and abrogated all charges for government funded schools. They multiplied the Ministry of Education's financial limit in multi decade; government spending on instruction became from under 3 percent of the total national output (GDP) in 1952-53 to in excess of 5 percent by 1978. Uses on school development expanded 1,000 percent somewhere in the range of 1952 and 1976, and the all out number of grade schools multiplied to 10,000. By the mid-1970s, the instructive spending plan spoke to in excess of 25 percent of the administration's all out current spending costs.Category:Modern Countries Category:Arab-World Category:Late Middle Age Category:Middle Age